Allen Motley dropped out of high school and started a janitorial business, sold it, and launched an apartment management company. His grandson, Alex Motley, has been inspired to follow his own entrepreneurial path.

Alex and his brother Justin "got involved with the little things" in the family business, Motley Apartment Management in the Branch Brook Park section of Newark, when they were just kids. The company — with Allen as CEO and grandmother Evelyn president — manages 460 units in Essex County.

A Morristown-Beard alumnus and Lehigh University junior, Alex Motley is one of the co-founders of Youth Entrepreneurs Diversity Corp., a nonprofit created to help young entrepreneurs network with established professionals.

All the founders are college students.

YED Corp. will hold the first stop on its campus mixer tour Thursday night in Philadelphia.

Former Morristown-Beard lineman Alex Motley, a Lehigh junior, is the head of strategic partnerships for YED Corp., which helps young entrepreneurs network with established professionals(Photo: Courtesy of Brandon Ballard)

"We want to network, collaborate and be inspired," said Motley, whose official title is head of strategic partnerships. "We want to bridge the gap between young entrepreneurs in college who haven't made it and established entrepreneurs. We want to include everyone, and we want to provide resources for people to achieve their entrepreneur dreams."

The fledgling entrepreneurs already hosted 150 student attendees at a national summit in New York City on July 21. They're planning other events in Boston, New York and Atlanta this school year.

"We have no clue what we're doing in terms of being entrepreneurs," InXAthlete co-founder Max Wessell, 26, said at YED Corp.'s inaugural summit.

"No one does. Everyone's entrepreneurial journey is going to be so individualized," he said. "But if I had a resource like YED Corp., where I could speak with entrepreneurs like myself and learn from them, it's a huge benefit. The adults were thinking, 'Man, I wish I had something like this to be part of.' "

Wessell and his business partner, Cody Ferraro, launched InXAthlete, which helps athletes connect with potential employers, while still Lehigh undergraduates. Wessell felt very connected to YED Corp. because he had "a different perspective on doing this while in college."

Brandon Moorer of West Orange, YED Corp's CEO and a junior at Northeastern, came up with the idea after attending an entrepreneurship conference during a summer internship. He wanted to find more events, but the few he turned up were unaffordable. He reached out to Jordan Williams, at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, and about a month later, Northeastern track and field teammate Leonardo Moronta.

Brandon Moorer, a Seton Hall Prep alumnus from West Orange, runs the 400 meters for Northeastern.(Photo: Courtesy of Northeastern University)

They started planning the national event almost immediately, bringing Motley — then in season with Lehigh's football team — and content lead Paige Garrison on board shortly thereafter. The first challenge was finding fellow students who might want to attend the event. Social media took care of that, advertising via Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. They secured SquareSpace's Manhattan headquarters, and have also partnered with WeWork. The next big test was lining up speakers like Fox Sports broadcaster Chris Broussard and Monica Brown, the executive director of product management at Comcast/NBC Universal.

The first YED Corp. summit sold out all 150 tickets, as the co-founders sweated out a late surge in the last two weeks before the event. Students traveled from as far as California to share their perspectives.

"We all definitely have an entrepreneurial spirit," said Moorer, who is studying marketing and entrepreneurship. "We knew we had something special. We didn't give up. That's a big part of being an entrepreneur: being true to your vision and seeing it through."

Former Morristown-Beard lineman Alex Motley, a Lehigh junior, is the head of strategic partnerships for YED Corp., which helps young entrepreneurs network with established professionals(Photo: Courtesy of Brandon Ballard)

Though Broussard said he isn't an entrepreneur, he was particularly interested in bringing more people of color into the business world and spreading economic empowerment. He discussed the importance of networking, to "find something you enjoy, plus something you're gifted at, and figure out how you can combine that to make a productive living." He also brought up the importance of giving back to the community, as through his Christian men's movement, K.I.N.G.

YED Corp.'s goal is to have campus mixers in every major city and to grow the national summit. They also hope to have campus chapters, as a local meeting place for budding businesses.

"It's a lot, but I always tell people you make time for things you truly care about," Motley said. "If you have a passion, you don't look at it as a burden or a chore. It's just your life."